Puglia seeks second term on LCUSD board: ‘There’s still so much work to be done’
Like many La Cañada Flintridge residents, Kaitzer Puglia moved to the city for its small-town feel and the quality of its schools.
She came from her hometown of Glendale in 1999 with husband Joe and young daughters Sabine and Simone in tow, eventually enrolling them in La Cañada Elementary School, where she served in a number of volunteer roles and as PTA president.
For the record:
4:02 a.m. April 24, 2024An earlier version of this story stated Puglia was 56. She is 55.
Her daughters were teenagers in 2013 when Puglia, an education professor at Pasadena City College, sought a seat on the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board and was chosen by voters among eight candidates contending for three seats.
“For me, it was an opportunity to share my experience with the community and to give back,” she recalled. “I understand the educational system — I get it, I see it, I know how it looks in the classroom.”
Currently vice president of the school board, Puglia, 55, is seeking reelection alongside fellow incumbent Dan Jeffries in the Nov. 7 election. The pair will face three newcomer candidates in a race for three open seats on the board.
Some board members serve just until their children graduate from La Cañada High, but Puglia, whose husband is a Valley Sun columnist, said she still feels driven to serve her community. With a master’s degree in education from Pacific Oaks College and nearly 20 years teaching at PCC, she hopes to bring her professional experience working on teaching methodologies and student engagement to bear on major district initiatives.
“There’s still so much work to be done,” she said. “I really do love the school board. And this is still my community.”
Priorities identified by Puglia include implementation of the facilities master plan, which guides future building and renovation projects at all LCUSD campuses, and passage of a $149-million general obligation bond on the November ballot to help fund it.
“The need for facilities upgrades is a real one,” she said. “But the funding structure the state has organized and delineated doesn’t leave room for funding any facility updates.”
That’s one reason Puglia supports La Cañada Unified’s involvement with the Coalition For Base Funding Fairness, a lobbying effort among high-performing school districts in the Greater Los Angeles area to increase base funding statewide.
She also wants to further the district’s work with programs designed to improve students’ social and emotional health, such as Stanford University’s Challenge Success, which began at La Cañada High School last year and is now being incorporated at the elementary school level.
“Challenge Success is helping us look at how we balance being a high-performing school district and meeting the needs of the students,” she said. “It’s exciting.”
For more, visit kaitzer4schoolboard.com.
Twitter: @SaraCardine
